Winked
Morning wilderness
borders on the land of dreams –
a star winked at me
Fact/Fiction
A matter of fact
is a matter of fiction –
so spring is my dream
Afloat
Clock chimes the hour –
I don’t count, knowing only
that now stays afloat
Bothered Beaver
The bothered beaver
strikes the lake’s bass drum and dives
to white dog’s surprise
Pink Haze
Weeping cherry’s bloom
makes a pink haze on blue sky –
this grief’s delicate
Exquisite
The exquisite scent
of a blossom I don’t know –
would a name spoil it?
Lone Goose
Lone goose, white bellied,
under white clouds, streaking west,
squawking all the way
5 Hawks
5 hawks circling light
at Cross Campus and Osler –
what prey do they see?
Green Eyes
One green eye in sun
and one green eye in shadow –
question mark cat sleeps
Flashed
A blue jay flashed through
the weeping cherry’s pink veil –
that was yesterday SF, April, 2008
More Like
Now I look more like
my father than like myself –
who was he am I?
Lovely Ugly
Lovely ugly croak
of a heron taking flight –
is mine different?
SF, 9 April, 2008
Cranes wait by the bay –
the Olympic torch is lost –
Everest stands still
A Streetcar
A streetcar renamed
lack of desire, how aging
brings want of wanting
Yellow Rimmed Eye
Small black bird, yellow
rimmed eye, tends a puddle where
cherry blossoms float
Mix
Fatigue and sorrow
mix with sixty year olds’ joys –
I’m past purity
Heat Wave, Point Reyes, April 12, 2008
Resplendent in warmth,
blue ocean, barely rolling –
ease, immensity
Scattered
Wild iris scattered
throughout seaside cow pastures –
specks of majesty
Stain
Bird against blue, hawk
keeps its shadow on a string,
stains green grass with ink
Tomales Bay
Now the setting sun
casts the bay as silver plate –
breeze rustles the trees
Hills
Hills climb to the sky,
drop to their knees by the sea,
hold millenia
Lowing
Black cattle lowing
on the hill confide in breeze
blowing from the sea
Quail
Four dusky quail walk
a dusty cow path – red winged
blackbirds sing in reeds
Crows
What crows have to say,
they speak in the squawkative,
the case that’s their own
No Rush
California
poppies, little cups of gold
in no rush at all
Coming Death
Close friend’s coming death
tells me the wind holds mine, too –
even the moonlight
My Death’s Horse
I am my death’s horse –
it rides me over the hills
to canter the beach
Pearls
I’m trying to find
pearls in nightmare – what rubs there
makes all things precious
Foil
I hadn’t noticed
eucalyptus leaves glisten
in seaside sun, breeze
Hush
Hush of afternoon –
I’m coming back to myself,
whom I barely know
Dragonfly
I fell asleep in
the tent of infinite dreams –
I’m a dragonfly
Free Turkey
Blue of gobbler’s face,
brown splendor of his ruffed tail –
turkey struts his stuff
Spring Hail, Seattle
Spring hail beats leaf drums –
sunshine yellow skunk cabbage
glows up from the ground
4:20 AM
I wake from my dream
to the first halting birdsong –
miracle’s music
Warbler
Warbler singing high
in a tree – dinosaur, how
did it come to this?
Wind Combs
Wind combs wildflowers
on the hill’s spine by the sea –
if my hair could bloom… Point Reyes
Tamales Point
This spring spectacle –
millions of bright flower eyes –
every year, just now Point Reyes
Bolinas Lagoon
Black seals on a bar
flop about, enjoying spring
just the way I do
Twin Towers
Twin yellow pockmarked
morel towers – how eagerly
my eyes pick them out
May 11, 2008
When the sun comes out
I’m another me, someone
woken by the light
Tree Peony
The tree peony
sheds white petals like a tent
going to pieces
Dream – RAR, March 10, 2008
I swam to the side
of a dying friend, dripping
as we were at birth
Not Prepared
I was not prepared
for anything that transpired –
this, my life’s glory
On Black Lake
White swans on black lake,
white dogwoods blooming on shore,
white dog by my side
Never Been
Darkest miracle
is death, the return to where
we have never been
Gold Drop
I am very small
and getting smaller with each
gold drop of a day
After Hail
Sunshine after hail,
clouds true to no fixed purpose,
unsettled as mind
Buck A,K.
Did the buck that slammed
into your car mark you then
for an early death?
Whir
Cardinal’s wings’ whir
as scarlet bursts from a clump
of gold swamp iris
Close and Far
I am an old man
who once was young, memory
close and far as dream
Stir
The stir of the breeze
in the May green of the trees
as light keeps changing
Old Apple
Blue jay in the breeze
lights in the old apple tree,
stays a single beat
Wine Of Joy
In the wine of joy,
is the flavor of sorrow
and yet we drink it
Lip Of June
On the lip of June
this forest is enchanted –
a faun sleeps in grass
You
You, white, naked, new –
here are the snows of this year
which will melt in time
Pest
I’m trying to know
much less than I did before –
ambition’s a pest
Wonder Of Now
The wonder of now
is that it is always here
so I’m not alone
Dog Daze
The hammer of heat
comes crashing down before noon –
dog inhabits daze
Wordwork
I’m a wordworker
or is it that words work me,
take me for their wood?
Death Fruits
Death’s everywhere
and then fruits like a fungus
from the underground
Basil
In the heat, basil
plants pop up, tiny green spades –
I taste what they’ll be
Bones
Up the wild cherry
has the wisteria climbed,
lacking its own bones
Savors
White dog savors taste
of the very first black cap –
next come mulberries
Undertaking
Strange undertaking –
we sail out to meet our deaths
under bright blue sky
Black Cohosh
Phosphorescent white,
witches’ candles now ignite
rise up from the green
Tangles
My thoughts walk with me
impersonate the tangles
of the climbing vines
June 11, 1977
That grief can sweeten
over vast stretches of time
is bitter wonder
Between Sets
Silence in the swamp
as the frogs rest between sets –
then a sudden twang
Goldfinches
Two small spots of gold
sit up in a tree, feasting
on ripe mulberries
Swallowtail
Yellow sunlight flaps
its wings – swallowtail crosses
creek from which deer drink
Late June Afternoon
White dog’s fast asleep –
rumble of distant thunder
competes with her snore
Sour Cherries For Pie
Red as winter coals,
but smooth and safe to the touch,
picked from their green orbs